Fox News reports on UN oil-for-food program audits

[underpants]

This is almost verbatim in italics. Emphasis is NOT added



These audits amount to the smoking gun according to one congressional investigator (read down to find out who) who has seen them.

UN officials were repeatedly warned that the program was awash in corruption. the UN refused to release their audits but on Monday Paul Volker, who leads to ONLY UN approved inquiry, is going to make them public.

They appear to show a systematic failure to adequately oversee the program resulting in overcharging by contractors in MILLIONS of dollars which in effect belong to the Iraqi people.

He went on to say that one audit of Lloyd's register showed that they charged the UN for 1,800 days of work when their employees weren't in Iraq amounting to an over charging of $1.38 MILLION.

Dutch Co. Sable who were supposed to oversee Iraq's oil exports overcharged and a savings of $471,000 could have been achieved.
"...no procedure had been established to monitor the services of the contractor"-that is as of the end of the audit, where these implemented afterwards (normal management procedure AFTER the fact gathering audit).

The UN claims the audits shows how closely they were being supervised but after studying them a Congressional investigator with Henry Hyde's International Relations committee told me "this is clear evidence of the gross mismanagement of the oil-for-food program"

Johnathan Hunt

Fox News New York

Audits Ignite Oil-For-Food Program Debate
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050109/ap_on_re_mi_ea/oil_for_food_investigation

In an interview with The New York Times published Friday, Volcker downplayed the importance of the audits. "There's no flaming red flags in this stuff," he said.

[CatholicEdHead]

1. What else is new

Fox News is always trying to rile up the base wiht the anti-UN talk.

More than 3 out of 4 (around 20% of the poll)people want us to stay in the UN, even though just half diagreed with the UN's Iraq stance in a 2003 Fox News poll I found once.

[underpants]

2. Yes but this isn't what the original "scandal" was supposedly about

If you remember the problem was that Saddam illegally sold $20 Billion of oil (I leter heard Rush say it was $25 Bilion) now it is about the contractors.

It is a $8 BILLION dollar program (see link) so these amounts are immaterial.
http://www.un.org/Depts/oip/


Here is a Sept. 20, 2004 Fox article with the original framing of the issue
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132832,00.html

NEW YORK — It began as a U.N. humanitarian aid program called "Oil-for-Food," but it ended up with Saddam Hussein (search) pocketing billions to become the biggest graft-generating machine ever and enriching some of America's most forceful opponents at the United Nations (search).

Plus, some evidence suggests that some of the money ended up in the hands of potential terrorists who are opposed to the United States.

[madrchsod]

3. remember the farm credit scandal?

money/credits laundered to buy weapons for saddam`s army???

[underpants]

4. To be honest no I didn't ---this one?

http://www.angelfire.com/ca3/jphuck/Book23Ch.2.html

EXPORTING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS. The Agriculture Department’s Commodity Credit Corporation (CCC) guaranteed that it would cover the sale of commodities such as wheat and rice, if Baghdad defaulted. However, the loan guarantees amounted to a massive United States subsidy that allowed Hussein to launch a military buildup. (Norm Dixon, Australia’s Green Left Weekly, August 30, 2002)

$402 million in Agriculture Department loan guarantees were approved in 1983. The following year, this amount was increased to $503 million, and it reached $1.1 billion in 1988. Between 1983 and 1990, CCC loan guarantees freed up more than $5 billion. Some $2 billion in bad loans, plus interest, ended up having to be covered by United States taxpayers. (Norm Dixon, Australia’s Green Left Weekly, August 30, 2002)

A similar taxpayer-funded, though smaller scale, scam operated under the federal Export-Import Bank. In 1984, Vice President Bush personally intervened to ensure that the bank guaranteed loans to Iraq of $500 million to build an oil pipeline. Export-Import Bank loan guarantees grew from $35 million in 1985 to $267 million by 1990. (Norm Dixon, Australia’s Green Left Weekly, August 30, 2002)

[SharonAnn]

5. And weren't some of the companies American companies?

And they were identified in various reports but those sections were "redacted"?

[underpants]

6. That has not see the light of day yet

at least not on the main stream media

[sonicx]

7. Maybe Raygun shouldn't have armed/aided Saddam in the first place.

why isn't that a scandal?

[underpants]

8. What? Huh? That isn't fair he is dead

though not actually buried (think about that for a while)

I have no idea why that isn't a scandal. See farm scandal post above.

[Shopaholic]

9. I always know when I'm talking to a Fox News viewer when they

bring up this "scandal".